This invention relates to improvements in aircraft, and more particularly to improvements in vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft of the tail-lifter type such as shown in prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,582,021 and 3,762,667, David R. Pender.
The basic concept of tail-lifter type VTOL aircraft was established in U.S. Pat. No. 3,582,021 in which the aircraft with fuselage horizontal on the ground is lifted by a tail rotor, converted to fixed-wing flight by collapsing the rotor, letting the fuselage descend, pulling the aircraft out the descent to a horizontal position to fly on fixed wings, and then retracting the rotor. The process is reversed for landing.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,762,667 discloses a multiple of implementing innovations for carrying out the concept. A large number of those implementing innovations are superceded by the present invention but some are retained. Those retained innovations are shown in the drawings accompanying this application in order to present a complete picture of the invention and its operation; however, the text does not include a detailed description of those previous innovations.